George Youmans, Jr.: The CloudMASTER Fashionista!

So how could a NCTA Certified CloudMASTER accelerate his career in the fashion industry?

To answer that question, you would need to catch up with George Youmans, Jr. He has been with fashion giant Ralph Lauren since October 2012. That was around the time he decided to complete the NCTA CloudMASTER curriculum. After graduation George was first promoted to Senior IT Technician and then to Senior Technologist.

So why would a company like Ralph Lauren even need a cloud computing specialist? 

Ralph Lauren installed interactive window displays at London’s most up-market department store, Harrods. Shoppers can use their smartphone to activate an interactive map which led them directly to the Fashion Lab where they could buy all of the items they saw on display. If the store was closed then users could still access information about the Ralph Lauren collection from the Harrods website.

Ralph Lauren conducted a technology trial where they embedded RFID tags in clothing that can be detected by the dressing-room mirror. Details about clothing items are displayed on the mirror (several languages are supported), and the system also synchronizes with inventory and point-of-sale systems. The mirror can also mimic the lighting of various environments. Some of its lighting options are white, dusk, club and aquarium. Other lighting options are tailored to the Ralph Lauren brand like “Fifth Avenue Daylight,” “East Hampton Sunset” and “Evening at the Polo Bar”.

The luxury fashion brand has also joined the race to produce fashionable products for the wearable-technology market. Its men only PoloTech Shirt was designed to read vital signs like heart rate and variability, breathing depth and recovery, intensity of movement, energy output and stress levels,
steps taken and calories burned. Conductive threads are woven into the compression top and a lightweight module snaps around the left rib cage to relay information via Bluetooth. The smartphone app offers live fitness monitoring and offers workouts tailor-made to how your body is reacting. The shirts itself is 70% cotton, 21% nylon and for elasticity 9% spandex.

A NCTA CloudMASTER® helps organizations transform customer experiences through:
• Customer understanding;
• Top-line growth; and
• Customer touch points.
They help companies optimizes internal processes through:
• Process digitization;
• Worker enablement; and
• Performance management.
They can also transform a company’s core functions and activities through:
• Digital modifications to the business;
• Creation of new digital businesses; and
• Digital Globalization.

IT staff of the future need the skills of a businessperson to stay current, as their company’s software requirements and the options for satisfying them will be deep, varied, and changing quickly.  The IT department five years from now will also need to keep pace with nearly constant change. The more complex and interconnected technology environments become, the more a general understanding and knowledge of how it all works together will be valued.

This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.

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